Community Marketing Blog

Seeking A New Advisory Panel For Input On Book About Monetizing Social Media

I'm seeking experts for steering, crowdsourcing and potentially being quoted in a book on social media monetization from a marketing perspective for Pearson (one of the world's leading media companies).

Social Media is so 1999

I worked for an e-commerce software company during the late nineties and on one occasion I attended a presentation in San Francisco by our #1 competitor for their channel partners.  This was during the dot-com period when e-commerce was the thing being hyped and the growing belief was “if you build it, they will come.”

At one point during the presentation, the speaker, the VP of Sales and Marketing, said that what was happening in the marketplace was exactly like the “gold rush and we are selling shovels.”  Here was someone blatantly suggesting the exploitative selling of tools for the futile pursuit of gold, in this case online success, to people being sucked in by the hype of that period.

How to Use Facebook for Lead Generation

Social media evangelists have long been telling businesses to be selective in what social platforms they use to promote their brands, especially since one size does not fit all. Many brands are turning to Facebook to generate brand loyalty, but the problem is that most B2B companies are just barely using Facebook for what it can really do - engage fans and provide value on the Facebook platform, while also driving business.

Book Research: Q4. What Did You Do To Build Your Social Network?

By Andrew Ballenthin October 14, 2009 President, Sol Solutions Biography

Connect.Follow.Network.

I'm in the process of writing a book for Pearson on best practices for monetizing social media as part of a company's holistic growth strategy. I'm interested in learning what works for your business.

Social networks do not just build themselves. It takes great ideas, inspiration, networking, advertising, inviting and much more. What did you do to build yours? Your insights and sharing are greatly appreciated for the following questions:

Who Are You Again?

Different social networking sites have different purposes. There is a line between our professional and personal lives, but with advances in social networking and community building, the lines are getting blurred.

Depression of Marketing & Advertising Coming To End?

Companies have not taken advantage of this time to promote their brand.  The economy appears to be stabilizing.  Prices will begin to creep up and then companies will want to regain market share.  Warren Buffet, the great investor and owner of Berkshire Hathaway always used a great line… You can’t wait until you see the Robin because spring is already over… 

Major accounts...why go after the big guys

If you are a smaller business services firm, having a couple of major accounts is critical to financial stability.

Approaching C-level executives is daunting. Here is a foolproof 4-step process:

What Are You The Best in The World At?

How many times do you see a company who tries to offer add'l things to its clients... which they are not experts and sometimes not even related?  "I have these customers and I need to increase revenues, so I just need to find more stuff to sell them."  If I can just increase my product offerings then I can get more revenues. 

Then you turn around and what they used to be the best at, all of a sudden they start losing market share there.  They have diverted their attention away from what made them great.

Is speech recognition the tool for Social Networking? Automated Speech Recognition (Part 2)

Networking takes place in our life on a daily basis, using verbal communication (audio) as the key interacting tool.  The "Social Networking” (Web based), as we know it, uses written communication (data) but think how much easier it will be if we were able to incorporate voice, into it.  And voice, not as a store and forward file but as an interactive and search-able medium.